Chicago ? Ken Griffey Jr. has never been in a World Series. He is nearly 39 years old, so he is running out of time.

Jim Thome has never won a World Series. He came close a couple of times as a Cleveland Indian, but now he is 38, and his clock is ticking.

Javier Vazquez has never pitched in a World Series. He got within a game as a 2004 Yankee before the Red Sox made a mind-boggling comeback and ruined it for him.

So, whenever you hear about how badly the Cubs want to win one of these things, do not overlook these guys.

A lot of Chicago’s fingers still lack rings.

Keep this in mind tonight when a three-game series with the Twins begins at an address that has been a house of horrors to the White Sox for a long, long time: 34 Kirby Puckett Place, Minneapolis, 55415.

You think the Cubs are the only ones starved for a World Series crown in this town?

Sox relief pitchers Octavio Dotel, Scott Linebrink, Mike MacDougal and Matt Thornton – each is in his 30s. Not a one has played in a World Series.

Dewayne Wise is 30. He is one of the hottest of the Sox right now and is making a bid to go to his first World Series as well.

Toby Hall hasn’t even been to a playoff game in his career. A.J. Pierzynski’s understudy will turn 33 around the time the World Series starts. You can bet Hall would lie, cheat or steal – maybe A.J. could teach him some tricks – to get into one.

A few of these guys probably watched the Cubs party Saturday with envy. They would like to do likewise this week.

All over town, iPods are being downloaded with “All the Way,” that new Cubs song by Eddie Vedder, and also “Go, Cubs, Go,” that old standby by Steve Goodman, with next week’s playoffs on the horizon.

But don’t stop singing “Don’t Stop Believin”‘ quite yet. Remember that the Sox are also still very much in this thing.

And just as hungry.

Center fielder Brian Anderson did not get to play a single minute of a 2005 postseason game. A lot of Sox fans forget this. Anderson was on the outside looking in that Soxtober when his team went all the way.

Nick Swisher is a youthful 27, but he is nonetheless eager. Swish had a shot in the 2006 ALCS with the A’s but saw a so-so Tigers team advance instead. He is aware of what going to a World Series would have meant to his father, Steve, one of hundreds of unsuccessful ex-Cubs.

You might have noticed lately that Sox manager Ozzie Guillen has been trying to motivate his troops any way he can think of.

He goads them into thinking that Chicago is ignoring them: “Everybody cares about the Cubs now. Nobody cares about us.”

He needles his pitchers: “I don’t have an ace here.”

He double-dares Vazquez to step up in today’s big game and beyond: “Sometimes he hasn’t pitched well enough.”

Time’s a-wasting.

It is running out, much like Griffey’s and Thome’s career clocks.

Guillen wants all of his guys to give it all they’ve got right now, this minute, or regret it for a long time.

“If I’d never been in a World Series in my life, I would play my heart out and my butt off right now,” Guillen said, “because a lot of these kids, they might never get a good chance like this again for the rest of their lives.”